Investigators have found a broken joint at the scene of the Spanish railway accident, the source said
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Experts investigating the cause of Sunday’s high-speed train derailment in Spain, which killed at least 39 people, have found a broken joint in the track, according to a source briefed on the initial investigation into the disaster.
The carriages derailed and crushed the oncoming train, pushing it off the tracks and onto the brink of Europe’s worst train disaster in modern times.
The accident happened near Adamuz, in the southern province of Cordoba, about 360 kilometers south of the capital, Madrid.
The experts who were analyzing the instruments identified that there is wear in the joint between the parts of the rail, known as the fishplate, which they say shows that the fault has been there for a long time, said the source.
They found that a faulty joint created a gap between the rail sections that widened as the trains continued to travel on the track.
The source, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, said experts believe the faulty joint is the key to identifying the cause of the accident.
Spain’s rail accident investigation commission (CIAF), tasked with investigating the cause of the disaster, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Spanish train operator, Adif, and Spain’s transport ministry – which oversees the CIAF – also did not respond to requests for comment.
Álvaro Fernandez Heredia, president of Renfe, which operates the second derailed train, told Cadena Ser radio station that it was too early to talk about the cause. However, this accident occurred in “unusual circumstances,” he said, adding that “human errors are not found.”
Spain’s train drivers’ union warned rail operator ADIF in a letter last August about severe wear and tear on high-speed rail, including where two trains collided in Sunday’s fatal crash, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters.
Potholes, bumps and uneven overhead power lines were causing breakdowns and damage to trains, the letter, published in X and confirmed by a member of the union SEMAF to Reuters, read, adding that drivers informed operators “daily” of their concerns but no action was taken.
First results
The first carriages of the train, operated by the Spanish company Iryo, drove over the rail gap, but the eighth, and last, carriage derailed, taking with it the seventh and sixth carriages, the person said.
Iryo is an independent train operator, majority owned by the Italian state-controlled railway group Ferrovie dello Stato.
The source pointed to a photo showing a gap in the vertical rail, which also appeared in a text image shared with the media by the Spanish Guardia Civil. The area is marked with police incident numbers as it is photographed by inspectors.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Transport Minister Oscar Puente were among the officials who visited the crash site on Monday morning. Sanchez canceled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, after the accident.
Puente said the Iryo train was less than four years old and that the railway track had been completely renovated last May.
The train manufacturer, Hitachi Rail, conducted an inspection of the train on Jan. 15 as part of routine care and found no anomalies, the source told Reuters.
The train is a Frecciarossa 1000, the same model used on the Italian high-speed network.
